The beginning of the 13th season of League of Legends has resulted in a slew of substantial changes to the meta, with ADC taking on the support position
Though the support role is often populated by enchanters and tanks who never completely fall outside of the meta, League’s season 2023 has prompted players to adopt new tactics that include ADCs being played in the support role.
Senna was the only support ADC created particularly for the role. However, when coupled with particular champions in the bot lane, this playstyle immediately became extremely overwhelming, fast becoming Senna one of the most difficult champions to balance, and has eventually been the reason marksmen have remained split from the role.
While the classic powerhouse pairs like Lucian/Nami continue to dominate pro play, the new two marksmen bot lanes look to be the meta’s trajectory.
More poke means more advantages
ADCs in the support role will often begin with a Spectral Sickle. After completing the item’s first quest, players can throw three wards down like the usual supports, creating pockets of visibility throughout the map that make engaging the bot lane difficult—despite the fact that there are two champions on one side who lack mobility.
Marksmen who can consistently poke their enemies in lane from a safe distance may finish both item missions in under 10 minutes, allowing them to have a greater influence throughout the map than simply the bot lane.
The amount of gold provided by this item allows champions who can proc it to purchase an extremely powerful item for ADC support, the Umbral Glaive.
Umbral Glaive
Senna was the only champion who could utilize this item consistently for months because lethality was still insufficient. However, it became crucial in the kits of assassins and diverse AD junglers throughout time, and it is again returning to the support position as the most essential item for supporting ADCs.
Because Umbral Glaive has no AP equivalent, ADC support champions are ideal for relying on the wards piled in their support item for vision and map control, while Umbral Glaive doing the rest of detecting enemies’ wards.
It is unclear if Riot intends to nerf Umbral Glaive in the near future, but if the meta continues to change in this double-ADC bot lane direction, the developer may be obliged to intervene and restore the support meta to a healthy state.
Right now, the tank supports’ buffs have already been announced for Patch 13.3, but will it replace the double-ADC is still unknown.